The Storm Ends
by steampunkqueen2489
Summary: this is my version of the end and events shortly after the Mass Effect trilogy. it's my first Mass Effect fanfic, so, I'm still getting practice.


()okay. first, my fanverse my sister's Shepherd, Lydia, & my Shepherd, Leah, are cousins and they went through the events of the Mass Effect games together. so, yea. second, this is my version of the end and events shortly after the Mass Effect trilogy. I haven't finished ME3 yet. I did get the DLC, Mass Effect 3 Citadel, and love it! the somewhat lightheartedness of it sort of makes up for the depressing feeling that most of the rest of the game has. I also got the DLC, Mass Effect 3 Leviathan. really like that one, too. in my version, also, EDI doesn't die.

"Hey, I think she moved."

"I think she's waking up."

"Shepherd? Leah?"

She could hear the voices clearly, familiar voices, not like when she woke up in the Cerberus facility. She could hear them, and she wanted to respond, but she was just so tired. She finally struggled to open her eyes, blinking due to the light, which, to her seemed harsh as it shined in her eyes. She wasn't sure where she was, what was going on, but the first thing she saw was Garrus sitting right beside her.

"Leah." he said quietly. He was one of the few people who called her by her first name, Garrus, Lydia, and sometimes Tali or Liara. Everyone else usually just called her by her last name, 'Shepherd'. Even Garrus sometimes called her 'Shepherd', playfully calling her by her last name as some form of a pet name. The only time anyone else called her by her first name was if they needed to distinguish whether they were talking to or about her or her cousin, Lydia Shepherd, who most people also usually just called by her last name. She could feel that Garrus was holding her hand.

"Garrus." she said, squinting again at the light, "What...?"

"Leah, take it easy." he said. She looked around the room, which didn't seem as excruciatingly bright now that her eyes had adjusted to it. She was in a hospital room. A second look around revealed that Garrus was not the only one there with her. Sitting at the foot of the bed was Leah's cousin, Lydia Shepherd. Kaidan Alenko was sitting beside Lydia, holding her(Lydia's) hand. Also, sitting or standing at various points around the room were Zaeed Massani, Tali'Zorah, Grunt, Jack, Kasumi Goto, Samara, Liara T'Soni, James Vega, Samantha Traynor, Joker, and EDI.

"You were in a coma for about a month. The doctors weren't sure you were going to come out." Liara explained, seeing the confusion on Leah's face, "Lydia was only out for about a week. But, you... we thought we might lose you." Leah remembered. She and Lydia fired the Crucible to destroy the Reapers, but the explosion... Leah remembered pushing her slightly younger cousin farther away from the blast, trying to save her from the blast as much as she could, before she herself ran. Lydia wanted to run back for her cousin, but was knocked down by the blast. She remembered trying to crawl over to Leah, seeing her laying unconscious before she herself blacked out.

"You had us scared for a while." Lydia said. Lydia was always the sensitive, calm one. Leah was the harder hearted, more impulsive one.

"I was...?" she said, getting a sharp pain in her head as she sat up in bed. She groaned, putting a hand on her head.

"Take it easy." Liara said, "The doctor said that your head might hurt."

"Yeah. You don't say." Leah said, grinning slightly, earning a laugh from Grunt.

"Now, that sounds more like my girl." Garrus said. He was relieved to see that she was not only awake, but sounding better, like herself. He remembered seeing her when they first pulled her and Lydia out of the rubble after the explosion, and took them off to the hospital. He was terrified that she was dead. She looked like she could have been. He thought that he had lost the one thing that meant the most to him. He had lost so much already.

**flashback**

They told him that she was alive, barely. She looked bad. Unconscious, covered in cuts and bruises, her skin was as pale as a corpse, her red hair hanging messily around her face. He could tell that though she was alive at the moment, the life could easily slip from her. Leah's cousin, Lydia, wasn't in good shape, either, but she was definitely in better shape than Leah was. Lydia was covered in cuts and bruises as well, though seemingly not as severe, unconscious, her raven hair hanging messily around her face, though, Lydia didn't look near as lifeless as her older cousin. Kaidan was following the paramedics as they carried Lydia away, practically chasing them down, asking questions. Garrus just stood there in shock, watching. Liara put her hand on his shoulder, attempting to comfort him, and he finally followed after the paramedics that were taking Leah. He could see and hear the other paramedics trying to fend Kaidan off.

"We're sorry, Major Alenko. We need to get her to a hospital. There's nothing more we can tell you right now." one of them told Kaidan. Garrus just followed, watching silently, until they took Leah off to the hospital.

"We're sorry. We'll be able to tell you more once we get her to the hospital, Mr. Vakarian." one of them told him.

**end flashback**

"I told Garrus not to worry about you, because your head is harder than any debris that could hit it." Jack said, smirking.

"Thanks for that, Jack." Leah said sarcastically, grinning slightly. Leah and Jack hadn't been very fond of each other at first, but after a while, they got to be friends, though they liked to tease each other usually.

"Right. We knew you were too goddamn stubborn to die." Zaeed said. Leah just grinned.

"So, when can I go home?" she asked.

"What? You just woke up." Lydia said.

"Can't say I'm surprised." Kasumi said.

"I'm fine. My head just hurts a little." Leah said. Leah wasn't overly fond of hospitals, especially when she was the patient. She also wasn't fond of sitting around. At least at home she could do what she wanted.

"I'll get the doctor in here, Shepherd. You can ask him." Liara said. She got up and walked out of the room, returning again after a few minutes with the doctor, who was a salarian.

"When will I be able to go home?" Leah asked.

"Well, you shouldn't really be by yourself until we're sure you're definitely alright." the doctor said.

"I'll stay with her." Garrus said.

"Oh, well, in that case, I don't see a problem with letting you leave today as long as someone is with you for a couple of days." the doctor said.

"Great. Thank you, doctor." Leah said.

"Whenever you feel ready, just get dressed and come out to the front desk so you can sign some release papers." The doctor said before walking out of the room. Leah carefully got out of bed, and everyone (besides Garrus, as it was nothing he hadn't seen before) left the room so she could get dressed. She put on her clothes and tied her red hair up in a ponytail. She crossed her arms, looked out the window and sighed.

"Are you sure you're alright, Leah?" Garrus asked.

"Yeah. I will be once I get out of here." she said, turning around to face him, "So, it was worth it? The Reapers are gone?"

"Yeah, it seems like it. There's been no sign of any Reaper activity. Half of the Citadel was demolished, but they have it pretty much rebuilt." he said.

"Do I still have an apartment to go back to?" she asked.

"Yeah. That side of the Citadel stayed in one piece." he answered. Leah turned toward the window again for a moment before turning back to Garrus again and kissed him.

"Come on, Garrus. I'm ready to get out of here." she said. He hadn't felt her lips on him for a month, and all that time he spent afraid that she wasn't going to live. He had barely left her side the whole time. Now, just like that, she was awake and seemingly mostly back to normal. They walked out to the lobby, where the others were waiting. Leah signed some paperwork concerning her release from the hospital and they were on their way. Being back in her apartment was strange. It felt like she hadn't been there in a long time, even though she had only been in the hospital for a month, though she spent that month completely out. She wasn't aware of anything, at least not that she could remember. She had always heard that some people are aware while in a coma, but just couldn't respond. She was pretty sure that wasn't the case with her. It was strange to feel like she had been completely gone, but then all of a sudden, back again. It just felt like she had been asleep for a long time, and I guess you could say that, in a way, technically she kind of was. Still tired, she flopped down onto the couch. Garrus sat down beside her. She layed her head in Garrus' lap and closed her eyes. He looked down at her, laying a hand on her shoulder. It was still hard to believe that he had her back. She had beaten the odds before, had even come back from the dead before, but he had been so afraid that she wouldn't this time. He remembered the first time he met her. He had seen many humans before, but never even thought of one as attractive. But, her... she was different... she was the most beautiful human he had ever seen, unlike anyone he had ever seen. Even he had found it strange at first that he was attracted to a human, but he definitely found her as such. In his opinion, her bold, daring, and witty personality just made her even more so. Though, he had always thought that she would prefer a human, one of her own kind, that she could never feel that way for a turian. That couldn't be farther from the truth. When Leah first saw Garrus, she was curious, found him interesting, as she didn't know much about turians at the time. It had only taken her a few minutes of being around him, seeing his personality, to develop feelings for him. He was tough, but he always managed to be able to make her laugh. Lydia, however, wasn't usually so amused by Garrus and his comments and/or antics, usually rolling her eyes or shaking her head. But, then, Lydia was the complete opposite of Leah in every way. And, Lydia had always had feelings for Kaidan, someone handsome, virtuous, and a bit naive. Kaidan had always felt the same for Lydia, and that had been part of the reason it hurt him so much when he found out that she had been helping Cerberus. It didn't bother him as much that Leah had been because he didn't feel the same way for her. They were close, but more like brother and sister, not in a romantic way, and they would sometimes butt heads, both being strong willed, stubborn, and a bit opinionated. And, it didn't surprise him when he found that Garrus was helping Leah, even though she was helping Cerberus. He knew how Garrus felt about Leah. Kaidan was reasonably sure that Garrus would follow her off a cliff. But, Lydia... Kaiden's Lydia. He couldn't handle it. It caused some problems between them at one time, but they worked things out, and had been fine since.

"So, Garrus..." Leah said, opening her ocean blue eyes, looking up at him, "What will we do now, now that it's over, now that the Reapers are gone?"

"Leah, we both know there will always be some kind of threat to the galaxy. Just when you get rid of one, another one shows up. And trouble seems to follow you and Lydia wherever you go." Garrus said.

"Maybe." Leah said, repositioning herself a little in his lap, "But we'll probably never see another threat as big as the Reapers."

"I'm sure there will always be something to keep us busy." Garrus said.

"Yeah. Well, whatever we do, Garrus, I want you with me, always. I love you, Garrus Vakarian." Leah said, reaching her hand up and touching his face.

"Leah Shepherd, I can't imagine life without you. I'll never leave you. If you would have died, I would have wanted to die with you. It wouldn't be worth living without you. Maybe now, we can take it easy and maybe... find out what a human turian baby looks like... just like we talked about." Garrus said.

"Maybe." Leah said, smiling. She sat up and picked up a framed photograph sitting on the coffee table, looking at it. Garrus had never noticed it there before. The photo was of a little girl who looked a lot like a younger version of Leah, with a woman and man, the woman having a close resemblance to Leah, though the other woman's hair was shorter than Leah's.

"When I was 16, I lost everything that ever meant anything to me. It was unfair. I learned then that the world was cruel. But, I swore it would never happen to me again. At the Collector base, against the Reapers, I was never afraid of dying, Garrus. I was afraid of you dying and me having to live without you. I was afraid of having to do that again, lose what means everything to me. I'm not sure I could do it again." Leah said. The picture Leah was holding was of her as a child with her parents, just as Garrus had thought. Leah didn't talk about it much and Garrus could tell that it was a painful subject for her, so he didn't ask. He figured she would talk about it if and when she was ready. He knew the story. Leah was born and raised on a colony on Mindoir. Her parents and much of the colony was killed when slavers raided the colony. Garrus looked again at the picture. Leah was an adorable little girl then and she was a beautiful woman now. She resembled her mother a lot.

"You look just like her." he said. Leah smiled, just a little.

"My mother? Yeah. I think it's where I get my witty sense of humor, too. She was so funny. I think I'm a lot like her." Leah said, smiling slightly more as she put the picture back onto the coffee table. Leah never talked about her family, not even to Garrus. This was a first. He wondered for a moment what her parents would have thought of her being romantically involved with a turian.

"What?" Leah said, tilting her head slightly as she looked at him.

"Nothing. It's nothing." he said.

"No. What is it?" she asked.

"What would your parents have thought of you dating a turian?" he asked.

"Garrus, it doesn't matter. They're dead. They never knew you." she said.

"I'm sorry, Leah." he said, immediately afraid that he had upset her.

"No, it's alright." she said, "Well, if they had known you, I think my mom would have liked you. She was open minded, and a bit of a rebel herself. My dad, though, I think he would have hated you." She laughed a little before continuing, "He was pretty strict, very protective, over protective even. He would have been very opposed to a trouble maker like you, and a turian at that." She nudged him with her elbow. "Don't worry." she said, "It wouldn't have changed the way I feel about you."

"Well, that's good to know." Garrus said, putting his arm around her.

"That's the only picture I have of my parents. I changed a lot after they died. Before, I was young, naive. That opened my eyes to how cruel reality can be. Before my parents died, I went to school to be a technical engineer. That was what I wanted to be. My mother was a scientist. I hoped I could use technology for scientific purposes. I had no interest in The Alliance, the military. But, the Alliance... they rescued me from the attack. That day, I decided... I wanted to be like them. Then, I would never be helpless again, maybe even save other people from going through what happened to me. I decided then that I wanted to join the Alliance Military once I was old enough. For two years, I dedicated myself to training, learning to fight and shoot a gun. I also learned how I could use my tech skills in combat. When I turned eighteen, I joined the Alliance Military." she said. That explained her skill with technology. She had trained to be an engineer. She layed her hand on Garrus' thigh.

"Thanks for listening, Garrus. I've never talked about this with anyone." she said.

"I'll listen to anything you have to say, anytime. You know that." he said.


End file.
